Do this, and you'll never have to complain about your Wii having no games to play ever again. Course, you'll also have voided your warranty. Actually, you'll have voided your entire Wii, since it's now nothing but a case for a loud VERY LOUD PC, but hey, some people will go to great lengths to make a point about the Wii and its supposedly limited uses. Pic of the guts after the jump if you're keen.

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A Tokyo Game Show 2008 list of games leaks that The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match will be released as an Xbox LIVE Arcade game. The game was originally released in arcades and SNK's Neo Geo and later ported to the Dreamcast and Playstation. There's no date for the title, but SNK recently released KOF '98 Ulimate Match for the PS2 earlier this summer. The game even got a Japanese arcade re-release this year, running on Taito's TypeX hardware.

No word on pricing for the XBLA version or a release date.

The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match is coming to XBLA [Siliconera via Dtoid]

Multiverse were working on a Firefly MMO. We say "were", because as of today, that project's been "delayed", which in light of the following sounds a lot more like "cancelled": the company have announced they're working on a Buffy title, a Titanic title and a Second Life clone. The Buffy one sounds like the fleshiest of the three, promising to be an MMO, albeit a messy one, since they say it can be played "either as a fully immersive 3D environment or as a Flash-based 2D game". They're also working on a free Titanic "title" (ie not a game), based on Jim Cameron's movie, that lets you explore the ship and-zzzzzzzzzzzzz................urk, sorry. Lastly, they announced Multiverse Places, which is basically Second Life, just made by a different company.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMO announced, Firefly MMO 'delayed' [Massively]

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Uh....Tony who?

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Once was a day where if you saw the words "Lucasarts" and "Star Wars" on a game box, it'd be an instant purchase. X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Super Star Wars, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight...all solid gold. But then something happened. They started putting out more Star Wars games. And they started to stink up the joint. Sure, a cynic might say that's because, as the dash for Star Wars cash intensified, quality control standards slipped, but Lucasarts have a different answer. They say that because it's "such a great licence", it's "really easy to get excited about that and not set the bar high enough". Whatever lets you sleep at night, guys. That quote's part of an interview with Force Unleashed's Cameron Suey, who swears that FU won't suffer the same fate, but then, that's something we've heard more than once from Lucasarts before.

Lack of ambition to blame for previous Star Wars flops, admits LucasArts [Eurogamer] [Image]

Here's the new Bionic Commando trailer Capcom unveiled in Tokyo earlier this week. Game looks like it's coming together nicely — here's hoping Capcom and Grin have fixed the control issues!

Media: New Japanese Bionic Commando "Lookout" Trailer [Kombo]

According to "sources close to Rockstar North", GTA IV's 360 DLC is still on-track for a Fall release. Specifically, it's on-track for a late November release, which backs up earlier rumours. But wait, there's more! The sources, speaking to Eurogamer, disclose what the DLC will actually be. They say it'll take the form of two ten-hour episodes, both of which will feature new achievements. Could be real, could be not real, if it really is November guess we won't have long to wait to find out.

GTA IV DLC on track for November [Eurogamer]

Early reviews are in for Force Unleashed (the game), and at this (early!) stage things aren't looking as good as Lucasarts would have hoped. If that scoring trend continues, the game will sell a few copies (if only for the branding), yeah, but it won't set the world on fire like the company were probably banking on. Ah well. Least the book's doing well! Force Unleashed the novel topped the New York Times best-sellers list for hardcover fiction over the weekend. So, are Star Wars novels taken more seriously by their creators than Star Wars games? Or are SW book lovers just suckers? Who knows! Could be all of the above.

Star Wars Book Tops NY Times Bestsellers List [GameDaily]

Yes, you too can pick up Dead or Alive gals. WITH CLAWS. Sega's announced its U.F.O Catcher crane machines will be featuring Dead or Alive Xtreme figures of Kasumi and Ayane in Japan. They're about 18cm tall, designed by Shunya Yamashita and apparently sculpted by zenko. Not bad!

DEAD OR ALIVEエクストラサマービーチフィギュアfeat.山下しゅんや [SEGA via yuuwakuwaku]

The Xbox 360 port of Konami's arcade boobs + Gradius side-scrolling shooting game Otomedius G: Gorgeous has been pushed back. The game was originally slated for release on September 25th, but the company announced that it holding back the game. The reason? "To eradicate bugs and improve the quality even more", Konami stated. No other release date was given.

『オトメディウスG（ゴージャス！）』の発売延期について [Konami] [Pic]

Sony has mentioned the PS3 will have a ten year life-span over and over again. The company is backing the console for the long haul. Sony has stated that's why the console uses new technology like Blu-ray. Shouldn't that mean Blu-ray will have a long shelf life? No, says a Samsung UK exec. (Samsung backed the format during the console war.) Says Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK:

I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10.

That's not to say Samsung doesn't think the format will do well — but rather, that it won't have legs. Griffiths added that Blu-ray is "going to be huge... We are heavily back-ordered at the moment. Griffiths doesn't go into great depth into what he thinks will bring Blu-ray down.

Samsung: "Blu-ray has 5 years left" [Pocket-lint via Gizmodo]

Earlier this year, Crecente got hold of some delightful little Raving Rabbids figures from Ubisoft. Figures I tried to swipe, before he smacked the back of my hand and sand "no, naughty". Well fuck you, Crecente, you and your patronising hand-slapping. I'll just go buy my own, because Ubisoft have announced that the figures - made by NECA - will soon be made available to the public. What's more, there'll be five figures available: the four we've already seen (Sam Fisher, Prince, Altair and vanilla Rabbid) plus a new one, the screaming/plunger-wielding Rabbid, which you can see (along with the classy packaging) after the jump.

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Game site Go Nintendo brings word that Atlus has sent out a Trauma Center survey — trying to find out player's likes, dislikes and whatnot. Here's the interesting big: Atlus asks players if they'd like to see Trauma Center on another platform. Those who finish the survey get the pictured nurse Angie Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 art.

The Trauma Center games have appeared on the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii. Any interest to see it elsewhere?

Trauma Center survey comes with Nurse Angie art, questions of other platforms [Go Nintendo]

On the heels of rejecting Square Enix's "friendly" takeover, Tecmo announced a merger with Japanese game maker Koei is in the works. Today, talks between both companies commenced for a tentative merger, and an "Integrated Management Committee" was created. Both companies hope to balance each other's portfolios — Tecmo is popular in the West with its fighting franchise Dead or Alive and action series Ninja Gaiden while Koei is popular in Japan (and Asia) for its historical hack-and-slash Dynasty Warriors. From the statement issued by Tecmo today:

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On August 28th, Kotaku first broke the news that Square Enix made an offer to Tecmo for a "friendly" takeover. Squar Enix's plan included offering to purchase a controlling interest in Tecmo by purchasing shares in that company at 30 percent premium. The Tecmo Board of Directors had until today, September 4, to approve or reject this offer. Square Enix stated it would withdraw it's offer if Tecmo rejected it.

Tecmo has just released a statement regarding this offering. That translated, after the jump.

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Forget about soon... try today! Activision Blizzard has sent through detailed pricing for all Guitar Hero: World Tour SKUs. The rumoured $299 tag wasn't far off the mark - it's spot on as far as the complete PS2 bundle is concerned. However, the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii bundles are more expensive... but not by much:

Xbox 360 & PS3 complete bundles: $329.95
Wii complete bundle: $319.95

The standalone game is also respectively priced at $89.95 on the next-gen consoles. Much better than what EA's throwing around for Rock Band anyway. The release with the prices also came with the following note:

Activision Blizzard operates on a wholesale price model. The recommended retail price points provided above are indicative only. Final retail pricing will be set by individual retailers and can vary to the RRPs shown above.

Full pricing after the jump.

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Castle Crashers is great. So much fun. Sadly that fun is often tempered by serious technical glitches in the game, from wonky online connectivity to stuff like erasing your entire game progress. It's annoying, yes, but The Behemoth promise (cross their hearts!) that a fix is on its way.

We just got off the phone with Microsoft and we had a great talk about updating Castle Crashers, YES!! Looks like we're on our way to getting this title update out and the bigger issues like saving and online connectivity resolved, in addition to other bugs that have been reported.

Unfortunately that's as precise as they get, saying they "don't have a specific time frame yet" for when we can expect the release, but it can't be too far off. Can it?

Title Update is Coming! [The Behemoth]

There isn't a "Final" Final Fantasy. Square Enix keeps going, churning those FF games out — endlessly! The first Final Fantasy was apparently named so because of Square Soft's financial troubles. The game was a smash hit, and Square Soft (and later, Square Enix) continued to make Final Fantasy games with no end in sight. What gives? Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto says:

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Witz! You there? Course you're not there. You're unconscious, lying dangerously face-down amidst a pool of your own fluids. As no doubt thousands of other Prinny fans are at the news that Disgaea's iconic penguin doods are set to star in their own game. Called Prinny: Ore ga Shujinko de Iinsuka?, it'll see you take control of a "1,000-Prinny squadron on their quest to help an extremely pissed-off Etna recover her stolen sweets", and is due for release on the PSN on November 20. That's in Japan, at least, as your guess is as good as ours as to whether this'll see a US release or not.

Disgaea's Prinnies Getting Their Own Game [1UP]

Besides writing songs and playing for British rock band Oasis, Noel Gallagher is a walking quote machine. So, you'd think he would have an opinion on something like Guitar Hero. Well, he does:

If it puts little plastic guitars into kids' hands and fires their imaginations, I think that's a good thing. It's harmless fun, innit.

I'd rather that genre of video games than somebody getting their fucking head chopped off with a samurai sword while getting fucked by a goblin up the arse with a laser. Do you know what I mean?

Um...

Noel Gallagher: exclusive interview [Music Radar via CVG]

A new challenger! OK, not a challenger, per se, since it's not exactly going to challenge the all-conquering WoW, Sims or Nancy Drew, but still. It's so nice to see a new face around the PC sales charts you can't blame us for getting all excited, can you? Game in question is Valve's Orange Box, which after a long absence makes a return to the charts at the expense of the Sims 2 Ikea expansion. Score one for the purists.

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Akuma is a "sort of" boss character in Street Fighter IV. He'll turn up when you're kicking too much arse, and need a reminder on the natural order of things. Since late last week, though, he's also been a playable character, with a code distributed to Japanese arcades allowing him to be unlocked and played. The official site's even got his moves list up, so you can study up before hitting the arcades. As for SFIV cabinets outside Japan, well, this is what Capcom means when they say the imported units are officially "unsupported". Sorry!

「いよいよ、豪鬼が？！」　プロジェクトマネージャー：塩沢夏希 [SFIV Blog, thanks Marcus!]

Rockstar has sent through the Oz box art for its upcoming racing title, Midnight Club Los Angeles. Unsurprisingly, it contains a shot of a car and... a Classification Board sticker! Heart-pumping stuff, I know.

I've included a larger shot after the jump, if you'd like to use it as a centred wallpaper or something.

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We gotta give it to God of War creator David Jaffe: Dude speaks his mind. Says what he honestly thinks. And he doesn't pull any punches. In a recent video blog, the game developer offers his opinion on John McCain's Vice President pick, Sarah Palin:

The VP pick... When I found out about McCain's VP pick, I was like, "Okay, look, there's no way the Republicans are happy about this at all". And there you go, they're raving like this is some great choice. So if anyone who's watching this is a Republican, please comment and explain to me... You know, it doesn't seem like the Hillary thing is gonna work for most women. I can't imagine most women, or voters in general, although certainly women in this case, are going to say, "We didn't get Hillary, we'll vote for this lady.

I think she's, you know, kind of cute. She's the perfect definition of a MILF. Not to, you know, disparage her or anything. I'm not trying to sort of make it about that, but it's like that's what I see when I look at her. I didn't love Hillary but I looked at her and I saw experience and intelligence... you look at this woman and you see a MILF. That's what you see.

Her experience doesn't really seem to indicate that she would be all that great as a vice-president and certainly not a president. What are they thinking? The more important question is why am I seeing so many Republicans saying this is great?

Video clip below, Jaffe starts talking about Palin at about 3 minutes 40 seconds in.

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Reader John E writes in to give us a heavy dose of not news. "I was driving on the freeway with some friends and we saw a Samba De Amigo truck driving around", according to his e-mail. "I haven't seen anything on this anywhere else on the web, so I'm not sure what it's for". (OMG, does that mean we have an exclusive?!)

We know what it's for John: making us seriously consider purchasing a commercial truck with bright red rims and Samba de Amigo branding, then having a custom horn installed that blares "El Ritmo Tropical" at anyone whose driving technique we disagree with.

Bethesda's PR man Pete Hines won't talk specifics when it comes to classification and its titles, but give him a more general angle, and he's all over it:

"The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'." ... "In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine.

On a related note, I recently asked the Classification Board a bunch of questions, if you'd like to take a look.

Bethesda: Multiple censorship laws 'frustrating' [CVG, via PALGN] [Pic]

We know the deal with Japan and the official Bluetooth PS3 headset, but that's of only trivial interest to most of you. Of a more direct interest should be the US details, which Sony have divulged today. The headset will, aside from launching in a bundle with SOCOM: Confrontation, also be sold individually, and will see a release sometime in "spring". As for pricing, you may as well buy SOCOM, as the SOCOM/headset bundle will cost you $US 60, with the headset alone costing you $US 50.

Official Bluetooth Headset for the PLAYSTATION 3 [PlayStation.Blog]

European PSP owners are going to get a few former PlayStation Network only titles in cold, hard physical media format, as SCEE is planning on releasing two collections of PSN titles on UMD. The PlayStation Network Collection releases, unearthed by Siliconera, consist of one Power Pack, containing flOw, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Beats, and the Puzzle Pack, featuring Lemmings, Go! Puzzle and Go! Sudoku.

Handy, even if one of those is a very odd mix of genres, but we thought we'd be seeing less UMDs, not more. No pricing yet, so try not to get too excited about the big big savings.

PSP PSN downloadable games get UMD collections [Siliconera]

Judging from the massive appearance Guitar Hero: World Tour made at Activate Asia 08, there's no doubt it's going to give Harmonix's Rock Band and Rock Band 2 a run for their money. Quality instruments, a decent song selection and a song editor and hero editor make for a tasty bundle.

But I'm sure you're after specifics, so, here we go.

On release, two packs will be available: the complete bundle, which will come with a guitar, drums, microphone and copy of the game; and the guitar solo pack, which will have just the game and guitar. It was mentioned that individual instruments would be made available at a later date, starting with the guitar and progressing to the drum kit.

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It's quite possible that Daletto's Street Fighter Online may not be able to surprise us with it's free online game bar lowering from this day forth. See, the PC fighter, which is a mouse controlled affair, lets players deck out new and classic Street Fighter characters with all manner of microtransacted accessories — like giant squid hats for example, the kind that match the USB memory sticks from PC accessory manufacturer Solid Alliance. If you've ever wanted to see Chun-Li wearing a squid shaped hat and peek at two gigabytes of squid shaped memory, identical to its virtual version, we suggest you make the jump.

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Last night I got back from Activate Asia 08, Activision's annual Asia-Pacific conference for retail and media. The Activision Blizzard branding was in full force, from banners to name tags to bags. It was everywhere.

A few newsworthy nuggets emerged from the event, such as Activision Blizzard's risk/market chart, which the company's new senior vice president, the chocolate-coated Philip Earl, talked us through on the event's second day.

The chart shows how Activision Blizzard perceives its upcoming titles. I've made a rather crude rendition of it above, so I don't have to confuse myself trying to explain it. The diagram is a bit boring, but it's the contents that made it exciting.

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In another case of "Only Ubisoft", the Nintendo DS is about to get another dog interaction "game", this time in the form of Cesar Millan's Dog Whisperer. The video game adaptation of the National Geographic Channel television show was rated by the ESRB not too long ago, but we need box art to let this sort of news sink in. There's a PC version planned as well.

We're expecting a Nintendogs for at-risk canines, something that we hope will result in a literal underdog triumphing over adversity; not pissing on the good rug, for example, but in-game. We also expect lots of microphone directed whispering. If you're coming in from the front page, click through for full sized box art reality, perfect for bewildered eye-rubbing.

Reader Maxwell spotted the famous cybernetic hero pulling advertising duty for Eckersley's Art & Craft in a copy of Drum Media. I'm thinking his likeness was taken from one of the manga books shown in the top-left corner, but who knows? Maybe someone at Eckersley's adores the little blue dude. We sure do.

Lock up your developers, Japanese publishers. Your daughters are fine, but EA is about to come knockin', snatching away your best local talent for its EA Partners program. The mega-publisher announced last month that it had signed Grasshopper Manufacture by way of Q Entertainment for an upcoming horror game, adding the developer to a stable that includes Valve, id Software, Epic Games and People Can Fly.

According to an MTV Multiplayer discussion with EA Partners group general manager David DeMartini, Suda51 and Shinji Mikami aren't the only Japanese talent the pub has its eye on.

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Ah Steve Fawkner. You sexy man, you. Even his mother thinks him and his games are a bit of alright. Scratch that, she bloody loves them, according to a podcast over at PALGN:

She's like the most hardcore Puzzle Quest player you've ever meet. She's finished it six times now, [been through] the expansion pack twice with four different characters - one of them she completely maxed out to level 50 and unlocked everything in the game.

The PALGN Podcast, Episode 42 [PALGN]

It wasn't long ago Nintendo announced its plans to pick up the slack on its products in NZ after long-time distributor Softprint when out of business.

Nintendo's chosen to make the change-over official with a new campaign featuring Brain Training and Olivia Newton-John. I'm not sure what the link is between Newton-John and NZ, but I suppose it's better than some generic US celebrity.

Press release after the jump.

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Will Wright gave an interview with Pocket Gamer during his trip to London. Although he was understandably not keen to talk specifics about his post-Spore plans he did profess a love for mobile gaming via his DS but didn't think that making mobile games (especially on mobile phones) more immersive was a good idea.

Rather, he thought that there was fun to be had using the phones capabilities - such as the camera - to enhance and interact with the player's surroundings.

"It could be about making you more aware of your surroundings than you would have been without the game, rather than focusing on the game and ignoring your surroundings".

"I can imagine mobile platforms evolving in that way, in that they interact with the world around us in a way that changes our perceptions in a really interesting way", said Wright, "Games could increase our awareness of our immediate environment, rather than distract us from it".

Will Wright talks Spore for DS, iPhone and mobile [Pocket Gamer]

You may have read a story on Monday about an aerial joy ride that went terribly wrong over Jumpinpin Bar, near North Stradbroke Island and South Stradbroke Island. It appears Ian Lovell, an artist for Krome Studios, was on the plane.

According to the story, the plane disappeared during an attempt to perform a massive loop. Search and rescue efforts found a propeller on August 31, but otherwise no wreckage has been found. Very sad news, and I can't imagine how everyone over at Krome is feeling. All the best to the studio and Lovell's family.

Krome Studios artist in tragic plane accident [Tsumea]

Details on a new batch of Halo 3 Achievements, rumoured to have been included in the Halo 3 "Mythic" build on hand at PAX 08, have emerged via the Ascendant Justice forums. With 30 Achievements in all for a total of 750 coveted Gamerscore points, the "Mythic" something-or-other features accomplishments based on the Legendary and Heroic map packs that have already been released. For a full list, hit the jump.

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Spore Cracked And Torrented, Already
And it's all thanks to Australia!

PSP 3000 Battery Myths Shattered!
The myths, not the batteries.

Xbox 360 Hitting 'Upper End' of Graphics Potential
Well, that has to be a bit of a concern.

Killer Instinct III Unveiled Via...Sheet Music (Huh?)
Damn sheet music, always leaking info about upcoming games.

Back at GC in Leipzig we told you about the Live Season System, a nifty little feature that will be showing up in FIFA 09. From the video this looks pretty promising. The Live Season System allows you to follow your favourite player through his real career and the game will update weekly accordingly. The catch? You'll have to subscribe to each league or all of them in a package and unfortunately, only the first week is free.

Thailand's Ministry of Culture, fully swept up in the hysteria that has followed an allegedly Grand Theft Auto-inspired murder, has officially banned five "dangerous" games, according to a report from CNET. The Technology Thailand blog writes that the following titles are no longer to be sold or distributed under the threat of legal action: Hitman, 300: The Video Game, Killer 7, Hitman: Blood Money and 50 Cent: Bulletproof.

Curiously, Grand Theft Auto titles don't appear to be on the "banned" list. It cannot, however, be imported or distributed due to its dangerous status.

The Thai government is also spearheading a vague 90-day effort to protect impressionable youth from "dangerous games" and establish regulations for pay-to-play gaming centres that feature such titles.

Thai Ministry of Culture wages war on gaming [CNET via GamePolitics]